The present invention is directed to the field of photocopying, particularly to methods and apparatuses configured to perform simplex and duplex photocopying operations. A typical photocopying apparatus provides basic copier settings for selecting between simplex and duplex copy options, i.e. making either one-sided or two-sided copies of a set of document pages to be printed. In a typical implementation, the setting of these options requires the user to define the layout of both the source document and the target output. These layout combinations are shown in FIG. 2, which depicts a graphical selection menu such as is found on a typical photocopier implementation, indicating the optional layout combinations. Here the user must identify the type of source document as well as the desired target output, as optionally selected from among the following page layout options:
Simplex to simplex (1=>1): the source document and the desired target output are both simplex;
Duplex to duplex (2=>2): the source document and the desired target output are both duplex;
Simplex to duplex (1=>2): the source document is simplex and the desired target output is duplex; and
Duplex to simplex (2=>1): the source document is duplex and the desired target output is simplex.
FIG. 1 shows default settings of a typical copier. The second button shows the Simplex default layout. Specifically, the default setting is “Simplex to Simplex”. This setting indicates that the source document is simplex and the target output will be simplex. To change the setting, the user presses simplex button to get options shown above with respect to FIG. 2.
The problem with this user interface design is its complexity. With this design, the user must assess the options as they relate to both the source document and the target output. This can create a complication in frequent instances when the user has a “mixed” stack of document pages, i.e. where some pages in a stack are simplex and others are duplex. In such instances, the user must separate the simplex and duplex documents, run respective copies, and collate both the originals and copies. This results in extra time and effort for the user, thereby reducing efficiency. On the other hand, the user may simply run the entire stack through the copier in a duplex-only mode. However, copying operations must be performed that are unneeded for the simplex source pages. This results in inefficiency due to extra copying time, and extra copying expense in scenarios where per-page copy charges are incurred by the user. Consequently, the typical photocopier does not offer the user an interface with default settings that represent the user's most frequent goal of making a copy that matches the source document.